Star of anti-Cruz ads: It’s personal

Jordan Fishman, the star of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’s latest campaign ads for U.S. Senate, traveled from Florida to Texas to chat about what made him decide to help Dewhurst attack GOP opponent Ted Cruz.

He was in Houston and San Antonio on Monday, and made stops in Austin with plans to head to Dallas on Tuesday.

Bottom line: When Cruz, a lawyer, represented a Chinese company accused of copying Fishman’s blueprints for a tire design, he waded into a battle that for Fishman is deeply personal.

Fishman is embroiled in a lawsuit against Shandong Linglong. He won a $26 million judgment against the company in trial court, but it’s appealing with the help of Cruz.

Cruz’s campaign has noted that an appeal is a normal part of the legal process.

Fishman, 74, who sometimes gets choked up when he talks about America and his case, doesn’t see Cruz’s involvement as simply business.

“I can’t vote in Texas. I don’t know anything about Texas law. I’m not here to support or not support anybody I was given the opportunity to sit and talk about what I feel what is happening to us, which is important for people in this country to understand. Because it’s not us alone, it’s happening to lots and lots of little companies and big companies. It’s happening all over, and it’s not right,” he said.

Whether Cruz was hired directly, or his firm was hired and asked him to take the case, Fishman said Cruz had a choice of whether to work for the company.

“He is the lead attorney. And he accepted, and he had a choice,” Fishman said.

Fishman, who describes himself as conservative, said he doesn’t identify with either the Democratic or Republican parties.

He’s also not affiliated with the tea party, although he added that those in it appear to be “just people who care about this country. If that’s the fact with them, I agree with that 120 percent.”

“And I can’t see how this person, Cruz, can wave this flag and say, ‘This is what I am …’,” Fishman said.

If he spoke directly to Cruz, Fishman said he’d want to ask, “How can he do that? It’s not right. If he wants to do something, and he wants to make a change, start making the change now with what he’s doing, and how he’s doing it. Say to these people coming in from overseas, ‘You’re going to have to find somebody else to protect you, because in good conscience, I as an American can’t do this. I don’t care how much you pay me.’”

As Fishman sees it, what’s at stake is this country and his life’s work.

“If somebody paints a picture, writes a book – that’s you. That’s you. Maybe you write an article – that’s you, on the line,” he said. “When I do one of those blueprints, that’s me.

“That’s what they stole. That, you can’t have,” he said. “If you take that from me, if you take something like that from America, to me it’s personal.”

Jason Johnson, Cruz’s general consultant, said, “The question is whether or not a lawsuit between two private parties who are not located in the state of Texas is more important than David Dewhurst’s record of increasing spending $72 billion and proposing wage tax, because it seems clear that his intent with attacking Ted about a private dispute between two parties that are not in the state of Texas is simply an effort to distract voters from his tax and spend record.”

Dewhurst has said he has cut the budget, portraying his record as one of fiscal restraint.